Learning 2.0 Week 12 - Wrap; social networks and catch up.

I believe that social networks do have a place in the public library sphere. There exist many opportunities to create networks in many different areas of interests. My library has a number of book groups extended over the various library branches. Each of these groups can create their own social network sites to communicate with each other - within groups and between groups. Another idea is to have a "Friends of the Library" network, where library members can discuss among themselves and with the staff ideas and direction that the library should focus on. Other social networking groups include local studies, children story time and playgroup, family history. All of these different social networks can help promote the library with the broader online community, attracting new users and members. The library can also use these groups to promote its own resources and facilities as well.

Wrap up:
I final come to the end of this course. It has been a long trip. I've learnt a lot about the wide array of resources and facilities the the Internet has available to promote, obtain and use information. I, for one, will continually using all the online facilities that I have learnt about and signed up to for both work and pleasure.

Learning 2.0 Week 11 - online applications

I see online applications like zoho-docs, google-docs, slide share etc as assisting library staff members to create and share with each other information that they can use within the library. The public library I work at has a number of committees that focus on a particular area of interest that provide a service to the public. I'm a member of the readers advisory committee, and I think that myself and fellow committee members can create documents covering various ideas and proposals and share them with each other. This would allow all members on the committee to comment and add their own ideas. Then, at our next monthly meeting wee can access the finished document and discuss it further. Therefore, an online application like google docs allows for the creating, contributing and sharing of ideas and have a common place to access it. A great tool!

Learning 2.0 Week 10 - Mash-ups

I see mash-ups as a new way to present information on the web. From location to highlighting various services. A public library service can easily use mash-ups to show the location of it main branch on its web site - or, if it has multiple branches, the location of all of its branches, using the Google maps tool. A mash-up can have four categories - video/photo, mapping, searching, news - all four of these categories can be put to use to highlight the various services a library provides. I can see the local studies librarians using mash-ups to present areas of historical interests in the local area, providing a map location, photo or video and a voice thread commentary. Also, local studies can apply this to family history, so users can locate various parts around the world and in Australia, where their relations have lived. Mash-ups can help promote the library and be used by library users for their own information needs.

Learning 2.0 Week 9 - Podcasts and Audio

What a great way to distribute and catch-up on audio information - especially if you didn't have the opportunity to listen to a specific broadcast first-hand. It enables many forms of communication - from radio broadcasts, lectures, talks and discussions - readily available to anyone with a MP3 player, ipod or computer.
Public libraries can utilise podcasts and audio casts within their scope of providing information freely to the public. This can cover many areas, ranging from author talks, lectures and story time activities. These can be recorded and placed onto the library's website for the public to download. Again, it's another way to provide and access information.

Week 8 Answer boards and Social searching

I do see a number of ways a public library can use 'Answer boards' and 'Social Searching' to benefit library users. While I think Answer boards do have a place, they shouldn't be use exclusively by librarians but as a last resort if they can't find information within their libraries own book or electronic resources.
There may be times when a librarian may need to use an Answer board website if the enquiry is one that is very specialised or broad and the librarian can't locate any information to satisfactorily answer the question. The Librarian can use the "Slamming the boards' website to find the answer.
Libraries can also place links on their own website to Answer board websites, so library patrons can use and ask questions and obtain answers for themselves. Then user can, if they want more information, use the library's own catalogue to search and locate the information. This would help in the area of general reference and/or specific reference questions and specialised reference questions.
With 'social searching', this could be used by libraries to assist patrons in choosing resources. An example can be with 'Amazon' with its features 'Customers who bought this item also bought' and 'Customer reviews'. Libraries can use these features to see what authors write similar books which would assist patrons looking for new authors who write books similar to one they like. This would be good for readers' advisory service. For library patrons, reading the customer reviews can provide them an insight to books they may like to read as well. Library book groups can also use a service like this to get ideas for future books to read and the customer reviews can be used for discussion points for book groups.
Libraries, thus, could incorporate both Answer boards and social searching to aid library patrons in finding information - especially reference enquiries and selecting reading material.

Week 7 Tagging, Folksonomies, etc

I can see a number of uses in a public library for Tagging, folksonomies, del.icio.us, and Library Thing.
With Library Thing, book groups, like the ones being run at Hornsby library and its branches, can each set up an account, whereby, they can keep a list of what books each individual group has read over the previous year. Also, these books groups could establish there own blogs so each member of the group can post about the book they have read for that month. This Library Thing account and blog can then be linked to the library's own website and members of a book group who couldn't attend a meeting can still keep up-to-date with their fellow members. Also, once these blogs are established they can be registered with Technorati and be linked with other book group blogs. This will allow for more varied ideas, views and opinions to be shared, especially with other libraries and other book groups.
A public library can, using del.icio.us, can create tags to highlight specific collections and resources. Users can click on the tags they're interested in and find a list of items that the library has on that subject.An example being 'Hornsby Flora' and a list of resources on the native flora of Hornsby can listed so users know what resources they can access to find out more about the native flora of the Hornsby area. It would also be good for displays, especially in the junior collection, as themes and subjects for school projects or general interest, can be listed under these tags. This can also be applied for students studying for the Higher School Certificate. Students can create tags to list resources that they can use for study, especially websites and databases that can aid their studies. Again, these tags can be linked to the library's own website for access.
Thus, one can see that there are a number of possible uses for tagging for a public library to promote and provide wider access to its resources, both print and electronic, for a variety of users of the library and to make accessing these resources more user friendly.

Week 6 Video online.

I finally managed to place a online video onto my blog. I did it a month or two ago but didn't write about it on my blog. But it's there under my week 5 entry about wikis. Please have a look.

Learning 2.0 Week 5 - Wilis

Wikis, and especially Wikipedia, are information post that are created and maintained by contributors who have an interest in the subject posted as a wiki. Wilis cover an array of subjects and interests, and many of these are library related. A public library service, like the one I work at in Hornsby, can use wikis in many different areas.
The first would be to outline the library's own procedural manual that are used within the library. From borrowing conditions, fees and charges, joining, using electronic equipment like computers, printers, photocopiers, and self-check machines.
the library's wiki can highlight any changes and developments, from changes to borrowing rules, fees and charges, or building changes. A good example would have been Hornsby library's own refurbishment in December 2007. This could have been mentioned on our wiki for the benefit of library users.
As the library often has exhibitions and talks, these can be written about. From displays to author talks, community events, both staff and library users can contribute what they thought about the event.
A page on the wiki could be set up for library users to contribute to library's wiki. This page can be used for people to write their views or criticism about the library. This would be an open contribution by users.
Hornsby public library has an extensive local history and family section, and a page could be set up for this for all library users interested in this area. Users could contribute new information on range of topics concerning the local history of the area.
Lastly, Hornsby library and its branches run a number of book groups. These groups can have pages set up where they can contribute views on books they have read or are currently reading. They can also write a brief synopsis on the book and about the author.
A number of these contributions to the library wiki can be either closed or open models. The closed models would be the procedure manual where only library staff can contribute. The open models would be the local history, exhibitions and author talks, and the book groups.
Thus, a library wiki can have benefits in promoting the resources and activities of the library and allow library users to contribute so they feel a degree of inclusion to the library's functioning.

Latest reading.

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.

Liz Dunn is a lonely, middle-aged, overweight woman, living a mundane life in Vancouver. Resigned to her life of a boring clerical job, a small dingy home unit, and strained relationships with her immediate family. She has come to except the way her life is and always be.

Suddenly, one day, her life takes a different track as the Hale-Bop comet streaks high across the sky. An event in her past, when she was a teenager, and the consequences of that event, comes back into her life - her son!

Jeremy is in his early twenties and is enduring his own problems. A young life of foster homes and various jobs has left him aimless. At the same time his body is destroying itself, limiting his future.

The coming together of these two people seem to come at the right time for both of them. As one needs emotional support, the other needs physical support. Jeremy, with his positive outlook and determination to live as much as possible, brings Liz out of her shell and changes her life. Jeremy broadens her horizons and possibilities to the world. Liz, at the same time, provides Jeremy with a home and material comfort that he needs. So, for a short time, a familial bond forms between the two.

After Jeremy's death another bolt from the blue brings another change in direction to Liz's life once again, and events lead her to Austria to confront another element from her past that connect her to herself and Jeremy - Jeremy's father Klaus. A middle aged man, Klaus is lonely as well, due to his own mental health problems. He and Liz form a connection, and through the memory of Jeremy, develop a relationship. Suddenly life doesn't seem lonely for either of them, and companionship replaces solitariness for the future.

Coupland's novel focuses on how seemingly ordinary lives are, deep below the surface, extraordinary in their own unique way. Also, no matter what type of person we are or what type of lives we lead, all of us need to connect with other people.

Abaza : a modern encyclopedia. By Louis Nowra, 2001.

Welcome to Abaza, the strange pacific nation of Louis Nowra's novel. Structured like an encyclopedia, it tells the history, culture, society, and personalities of the island nation. Four condemned men await their fate in the capital's jail. Each, with different positions in Abaza society, narrate the story, detailing the various elements that contribute to the country's make up. From the various despotic rulers; the mad revolutionary and his child army; the drug pitu; the macabre adventures of Tegi the cartoon charater and his creator; and the corruption and violence.

Linking all this is Aba, the svengali figure, who weilds the true power. His machiavellian acts ensures his own position within the power structure of Abaza's government and politics, but condemns others - including Abaza.

At first I read it like the encyclopedia it sets out to be, by going back and forth to the various entries that were linked to one another. A quarter way through, however, I gave this up and decided to read it straight through like a regular novel. By doing this, I, as the reader, later discovered how the various links to other entries came together to form the whole. Also, Nowra succeeds in writing the entries in the voices of each of the condemn men - from the semi-literate child soldier, the educated professor, the journalist, and the former government insider. Each supply the various outlooks of Abaza through their place in society.

At times funny, shocking and ugly, this fictional nation state of the south pacific is vividly brought to life. So, do yourself a favour, take a trip to Abaza.

First reading.

The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge.

What bonds men together to rndure hardships is the focus of this novel. The expedition of Robert Scott to Antartica is a classic story of man versus nature, man versus man, man versus himself.
Told in the first person from five different perspectives, we, as readers, obtain an insight to all the characters from each other's point of view. The ambitious Scott; the dependable Wilson; the stalwart Bowers; the stern Oats; and the opportunistic Evans. All five detail their lives, relationships and motivations that lead them to their fateful expedition that ends in disappointment and lost.
Bainbridge's account of the physical and mental hardships, hostile environment, and the attitudes of the era, are imaginatively retold in this finely written historical novel, as these men confront themselves and finally nature. 7/10.

Finally folks I've managed to upload an image onto my blog, thanks to the help of a fellow member of staff. Big thanks to Karen for showing me the way.Cheers, Jerome.

Downloading a photo. Help!

To anyone visiting my blog explain to me how I can successfully place a photo on my blog? This exercise is part of week three's activities, whereby, you download a photo from flickr on to your blog and write about. For some reason, however, I'm having a very hard time trying to do it successfully. I even followed the instructions on blogger but only an empty box appeared with a small red ex in the corner, meaning to me that the image didn't download correctly or was protected. So, if anyone visiting my blog can give some tips it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Jerome.
P.S. I will keep o trying.

Still finding some of this confucsing.

Dear readers:

I have to confess that I'm still finding a lot of this confusing. Week three's topic was interesting about the images, however, I still haven't place an image up on my blog yet. I have to work it out. RSS was another interesting topic which provides the opportunity to stay up to date in a wide varied of topics that interest you.
I just feel, at the moment, whether I fully grasping all the nuances about the topics so far. I suppose the more I do it the better I'll get and the more I'll understand it. Just feel a little anxious at the moment with it all.

Still coming to grips with all this.

I had some trouble looging into my blog today. I thought I was doing it correctly but it said I then had to go to my gmail account to get instructions. I did this but coulfn't find any. Thus, I went back to blogger and put in username and password again - hey presto I was able to get in. Very odd. Perhaps there was something small that I wasn't doing at the beginning, I don't know.
Anyway, you learn by doing it and everyone is bound to make mistakes, so I guess I will get better at as time goes on.

February 25, 2008

Dear readers.

This is my first entry to my very first blog. So please excuse me if I'm a little tentative. In the up coming weeks I'll have more to say.